Luda Gains #1 Spot

After displaying oversized turntables, an enormous beer bottle and a huge sneaker in the video for “Stand Up,” Ludacris has a big chart debut to complement the picture.

First-week sales of more than 429,000 will catapult Ludacris‘ Chicken-N-Beer to the top of the Billboard albums chart, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (October 15). The Southern MC’s popularity seems to be growing along with his afro, since his last album, Word of Mouf, sold around 281,000 copies to debut at #3 when it was released in late 2001.

Meanwhile, Elvis Presley’s 2nd to None, the second such set to surface in a little more than a year, comes in at #3 with more than 181,000 copies sold — a relatively poor showing compared with the half-million copies that 30 #1 Hits debuted with in September 2002. Presley’s haul places it just behind former chart champ Outkast’s Speakerboxxx / The Love Below, which sold more than 187,000 copies to drop to #2. Andre and Big Boi’s three-week total stands just 67,000 copies shy of a cool million.

No changes in the fourth and fifth spots, as Dido’s Life for Rent holds at #4 with 109,000 copies sold, and Dave Matthews’ Some Devil remains at #5 after a more than 102,000-copy weekly pull.

Though Hilary Duff suffered a 12 percent drop in sales, her Metamorphosis moves forward three places to come in at #9. Meanwhile, Limp Bizkit and country singer Martina McBride forfeit their places in the top 10, with Bizkit’s Results May Vary falling six to #11 with more than 77,000 copies sold in its third week. McBride’s Martina plunges from #7 to #25 with 42,000 copies sold, a 65 percent dip.

The rest of the top 10 finds Sting’s Sacred Love dropping three places to #6 (94,000) in its second week; Bad Boy’s Da Band’s Too Hot for T.V. falling from #2 to #7 (82,000); R. Kelly’s The R. in R&B Collection – Volume 1 holding at #8 (81,000); and Nickelback’s Long Road taking a step back to #10 (78,000).

Sevendust’s fourth album, Seasons, sold more than 67,000 copies last week to debut at #14, just behind Totally Hits 2003, which boasts cuts from Justin Timberlake, Sean Paul, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard.

And just behind Sevendust is the late Tupac, who’s newest posthumous set, Nu-Mixx Klazzics, features 10 previously released tunes remixed by Suge Knight and his Tha Row Hitters. The album sold more than 66,000 copies to perch at #15.

Nü-metalheads Static-X’s third album, Shadow Zone, bows at #20. Backed by the single “The Only,” the band’s follow-up to 2001’s Machine sold more than 48,000 copies.

Other notable debuts include the double album MTV2 Headbangers Ball, featuring cuts from Godsmack, Lamb of God, Mudvayne and others, at #34; Primus’ greatest-hits EP/DVD Animals Should Not Act Like People at #44; singer/songwriter Howie Day’s second album, Stop All the World Now, at #46; Wu-Tang mastermind RZA’s Birth of a Prince at #49; prog-metal band Coheed and Cambria’s second album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, at #52; garage-rockers Jet’s Get Born at #79; twee collective Belle & Sebastian’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress at #84; melancholy rockers Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism at #97; the RZA-spiked soundtrack to “Kill Bill” at #115; and jammers Gov’t Mule’s Deepest End at #153.